1904 in literature

See also: 1903 in literature, other events of 1904, 1905 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• January - Mark Twain begins dictating his autobiography
• September - Mark Twain purchases a home at 21 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

New books

• Ashes - Stefan Żeromski
• The Cherry Orchard - Anton Chekhov
• The Common Lot - Robert Herrick
• The Divine Fire - May Sinclair
• A Dog's Tale - Mark Twain
• A Drama in Livonia - Jules Verne
• The Food of the Gods - H. G. Wells
• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James
• Ghost Stories - James Montague
• The Golden Bowl - Henry James
• The Green Eye of Goona - Arthur Morrison
• Green Mansions - William Henry Hudson
• Hadrian the Seventh - Frederick Rolfe
• The Island Pharisees - John Galsworthy
• Jean-Christophe (vol. 1) - Romain Rolland
• A Journey In Search of Christmas - Owen Wister
• The Late Mattia Pascal - Luigi Pirandello
• Marcus and Faustina - John R. Carling
• Master of the World - Jules Verne
• The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G. K. Chesterton
• Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
• Peter Camenzind - Hermann Hesse
• Philosophy 4 - Owen Wister
• The Prodigal Son - Hall Caine
• The Sea-Wolf - Jack London
• Sir Mortimer - Mary Johnston
• The Tale of Benjamin Bunny - Beatrix Potter
• Theophano, The Crusade of the Tenth Century - Frederic Harrison

New drama

• Anton Chekov - The Cherry Orchard
• Erich Mühsam - Die Hochstapler (The Con Men)
• J. M. Barrie - Peter Pan
• J.M. Synge - Riders to the Sea

Births

• January 22 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer
• January 23 - Louis Zukofsky, modernist poet
• January 31 - John O'Hara, novelist (d. 1970)
• February 1 - S. J. Perelman, humorist, author
• February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor, historian (d. 1977)
• March 26 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology
• April 27 - Cecil Day-Lewis, poet
• May 6 - Harry Martinson, Swedish author, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature
• July 13 - Pablo Neruda, poet
• November 28 - Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer (d. 1973)
• December 26 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban novelist

Deaths

• January 20 - Hermann Eduard von Holst, historian
• February 8 - Alfred Ainger, biographer and critic
• February 22 - Sir Leslie Stephen, essayist and critic
• April 16 - Samuel Smiles, political journalist
• May 5 - Mór Jókai, Hungarian writer
• June 5 - Olivia Langdon Clemens, wife of Mark Twain
• July 3 - Theodor Herzl, journalist
• July 14 - Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer
• August 22 - Kate Chopin, author
• September 26 - Lafcadio Hearn, author of books about Japan
• November 19 - Hans von Hopfen, poet and novelist

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray y Eizaguirre